Texas Caucus Debacle

It is 7:27 pm. I am already back from the second step of the Texas Two Step. The caucus. I arrived at the caucus location at 6:45. A line of cars was backed up on to the street at the entry to the parking lot. The parking lot was full. Some voters were leaving and not staying for the caucus and those were the available parking spots. By the time I made it off the street it was parking lot gridlock.

Some were trying to turn around and bail. This resulted in an ugly stand-off between two women drivers. I could not believe there was no police presence to help with this mayhem.

So, I called 911. The dispatcher sounded sleepy. I explained the problem. Told her it was at the East Regional Library Voting/Caucus site. She said she needed a street. I said, I dunno, I think it's Bridge Street. She said she also needed a cross street. I said there is none and the cops will know where the library is.

At that point one of the election workers showed up trying to untangle the mess. I told her I was on the phone to 911 and asked where are the police, this is getting ugly?

A couple minutes later election worker traffic directors started going around asking those in cars if they were here to vote in the primary, if so, just park anywhere, and go vote. And then they decided to just tell everyone to park as best they could. I could see this could get me blocked in, so I drove to a spot where I thought that no one could block me.

By now there was a large crowd milling about outside the library. More cars continued to enter the parking lot. Some exited and began parking on a side street. By the time I escaped that side street was full of parked cars on both sides of the street for at least a half mile.

After I parked I ran into the election worker I'd told earlier that I'd called 911. She was now in full traffic director mode. I told her she was the prettiest traffic cop I'd ever seen. That seemed to please her.

I wanted to take some pics of the crowd. There was a festive atmosphere. A guy stood on a bench and preached to the crowd. He sounded very insane. I got inside the library and saw the size of the crowd. It was not even 10 after 7 and there were enough people to fill up 10 of the caucus size rooms.

And the voting had not ended. I knew this was a boondoggle that did not need any further participation from me. So, I began my escape. The traffic cop who I'd told was pretty saw me leaving, then grabbed my arm and said I had to stay, that my one vote might be the one that made the difference.

I didn't think so. What I thought was this was an absurd boondoggle and whoever is the controlling authority that validates elections needs to immediately make whatever move they need to make to invalidate these caucuses. I saw many people giving up. As I walked among the cars most had their windows down. I'd ask if they were here for the primary or the caucus. Almost everyone answered caucus. I saw two cars in which women were crying in frustration.

On the plus side I saw many people who brought their children. I think they were feeling really proud about who they were getting to vote for and wanted their kids there. I saw many acts of kindness.

And one big bad overarching case of a really bad idea going badly awry.

The Texas Two Step stepped right into this mess without thinking. This election night disaster could have been avoided. It is not like it has not been known for some time that tonight was going to be a big deal.

I'm appalled. This is two elections in a row now here where I have been sort of disenfranchised. Jimmy Carter needs to monitor the Texas elections like he does other Third World countries.

Voted Without a Glitch

I got to my voting place about half past noon. Lots of cars in the parking lot, but no line to wait in to vote. I just walked up to the first person I saw, handed her my registration card and helped her figure out what my last name was and where it was located on the alphabet. Eventually, another precinct worker (is that what they are called?) showed up and between the 3 of us we were able to find me on the voter roll.

I asked the precinct workers if this little room was actually where the caucus was going to take place. They confirmed that it was. I asked how can that work? Various voices chimed in with various comments along the lines that it may be a disaster, we don't know what we'll do about parking, we don't know where to put the people. And that they are hoping to have a police presence in place. I can't wait.

Each time I've voted in Texas the method has been different. The last time a sort of video game device was used. If I remember right you entered a code that you'd been given upon signing in. You then spun a dial to move to different spots on the electronic ballot. You could go back and forth over the pages changing your vote if you wanted to. When you were satisfied you were done you hit a button and a nice big American flag appeared on the screen and waved in the wind. I don't remember if music played. I suspect not.

The voting process today seemed to have gone back in time, somewhat. I was handed a paper ballot, then directed to a voting booth. It was not very private. You had a pen and filled in a square by whoever you wanted to vote for. The guy next to me asked the election worker if he had to vote for everyone on the list because all he wanted to vote for was Barack.

When I finished voting for the only person I was voting for, mainly because I had no clue about any of the other races or people running in them, despite some shady looking guy handing me a brochure when I walked in asking me to vote for him. I believe he was running for city council. So, upon finishing voting I was led to a copy/fax machine looking thing and told where to stick the ballot. It was sucked in, scanned and was not seen by me again.

I thought it quite odd that the election worker could clearly see who I was voting for. That did not seem right.

There was no Hillary sign at the voting location. There was a large Obama sign. And many others.

Sunny Sky Voting Weather

The view out my window has returned to a nice shade of Texas blue after yesterday's unseemly all day gray drizzle. The predicted iced version of water falling did happen right on schedule, arriving about 6pm in the form of frozen pellets that seemed to be a mutation of a snowflake and hail.

Some areas of the D/FW Metroplex must have had a lot more snow/hail than I saw, because this morning while driving in Arlington I saw several cars with about 4 inches of white stuff on them. And others with lesser amounts.

Texas Primary Election officials have now let it be known that they are very nervous about what is going to happen tonight. Their worries are the same I mentioned yesterday, as in too many people in too small of spaces with too little parking to handle those who return for part 2 of the Texas Two Step, that being the caucus. They are also afraid that the voting may go on well past 7 due to the requirement allowing anyone in line the right to vote, as long as they are in line before the 7 o'clock poll closing time.

The caucus can not begin until the last voter has voted. Where the caucusers are supposed to wait I have no idea. I may just go check out the spectacle. And then bail. Unless it seems interesting.

Miserable Drip & Election Mayhem

Today's blog is a weather report. When you've got nothing else to say the weather becomes the conversation topic. North Texas weather can be such a trial, but the lead up to Spring is the worst. Or the funnest if you like rock and roll storms full of sound and fury and a chance of a tornado or grapefruit size hail. That was our entertainment here in the wee hours this morning. A lot of noisy rain and big booms with bright light effects. No tornado in my immediate zone though. I've yet to hear the tornado sirens go off this year.

The past few days had been in the 80s with one day almost breaking the record at 91. I'd spent one afternoon reading by the pool. I thought the cold misery was done for the year. But last night's storm from the south brought in fresh hell from the north and after the 2 fronts got done fighting the north won, just like it always does. So the temps have been falling all day. It's been dripping all day, a winter in the northwest type drippy winter day. And that dripping is predicted to turn into some form of ice as daylight leaves. It could be snow, hail or an ice storm. Of the 3 the one I truly dislike is an ice storm. I've had falling down issues during an ice storm.

I forgot to mention, my current dreary view of the world is what I'm looking at right now in the photo above. Looking out the window to the right of my computer desk.

Earlier today I braved the cold when it was still in the 40s and returned that Gail Sheehy book about Hillary called Hillary's Choice. I checked out a couple new books and asked the librarian if the library was tomorrow's caucus place for this precinct. She did not know. So much for libraries being a good source of information.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about tomorrow's voting. I do know that the library is my voting location tomorrow, that is Step One in the Texas Two Step. Step Two starts when the polls close, Step Two being the caucus. The location of which I do not know.

That wonder of useless information, that I may have complained about before, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had an article this morning which was ostensibly about all the confusion over tomorrow, but somehow did not answer the key question, as in where are the damn caucuses? Instead they had a cutesy dumb Myth and Fact list that was particularly insipid. Like "Myth: Voting twice means voting early and then voting again during the day Tuesday." Or "Myth: Voting twice means I can vote in both the Democratic and Republican primaries." Or "Myth: I can vote Tuesday without having registered."

Apparently this Texas Two Step method has been in play for 20 years but this is the first election where people are actually interested. I'm thinking Texas will get rid of this, well, idiotic, method by the next election cycle because by the end of tomorrow night it likely will be nationally controversial because no one will be able to understand how it was Hillary won the Texas popular vote while Obama won the most delegates. That's my prediction and I'm sticking to it.

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TEXAS TWO STEP UPDATE: Upon consulting an election expert I have learned the Texas caucuses take place at wherever your polling place is. The Star-Telegram actually said this, but I, dense reader that I am, was not able to parse their verbiage and accurately extract its meaning. I also think when I read that the caucus starts when the voting ends that they couldn't possibly mean in the same location. But how would one get quickly from the voting location to the caucus location, I wondered? It never crossing my mind that they could be one and the same.

So, tomorrow we have a set up here in Texas for one gigantic Cluster Muckup. Early voting has already broken all records. Tomorrow's turnout, despite the cold weather, is expected to break all records. So, how in the world are they going to clear out the voting equipment and set up a caucus meeting in the small meeting room that acts as the polling place in the library I visited earlier today?

I was going to just vote in the primary and ignore the caucus and stay home and watch American Idol. But now I'm thinking I can try and figure out my VCR and watch American Idol later. This should be at least as entertaining a mess as Saturday's security incompetence at Hillary's Stockyards rally.

Secret Service Lapses?

Yesterday's bizarre experience with the lackadaisical security at Hillary's Fort Worth Stockyards rally continues to perplex me. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram this morning reported that it was the Secret Service which ordered the security checks to stop about 3 minutes into Hillary's speech.

That is not how I remember it. Hillary had been on the stage basking in the cheering for several minutes before she started to speak. It seemed to me that it was more like 10 minutes into the speech that the flood-like rush of people running towards her caught my eye.

If you look at the above photo you can see the 3 electronic screeners which were used to try and screen thousands of people. Why go to all this bother of slowly checking relatively few people and then suddenly have no security checks? It makes no sense.

Rather than attempt to take care of security like they do at an airport why not instead randomly check people in the line? Security was so lax, like I told you yesterday, I was able to avoid the line very easily.

Had the security people gone up and down the line, randomly checking people, any bad guy would likely have bolted. A random check would have been much better than what they did do, that being stopping thousands from even getting into the event, many bailing due to the ultra-slow moving line, then suddenly letting those who remained rush in with no security check.

If one of those people in that mass of humanity that rushed in after the Secret Service stopped the security checks had a gun and managed to get a shot off at Hillary it is not too hard to figure out that someone would be in big trouble for the ceasing of the security checks.

Seems to me there is a serious problem in this security situation that is in need of a quick solution. Obviously airport type screening does not work with huge crowds. And ceasing all checking seems absurd, going from one extreme to another.

My Date With Hillary

Seeing Hillary today at the Fort Worth Stockyards did not go the way I thought it would. I got to the location about 11am to see a long long long line snaking way out the east end of the Stockyards. The free parking zone was blocked off. Parking over by the world's biggest honky tonk, Billy Bob's, cost 5 bucks. I drove to a nearby park and parked for free.

I'd decided I had no interest in waiting in a line, but I knew of a couple alternative ways to get in the cordoned off zone. My first attempt was via the route along Marine Creek where a trail goes through a tunnel and comes out inside the Stockyards. But a couple cops yelled that we couldn't go that way. The cops directed us to that long line I'd already decided I was not going to wait in.

But I joined the crowd walking towards the line. Except I split off to go to another backway in, that being over the actual Stockyard pens. There is a boardwalk above the actual Stockyards. And the gate to it was open! I was surprised. When I exited, at the end of the boardwalk, I was inside the secondary security zone. A pair of cops told us to stick to the side of the road because the Fort Worth Herd was on the move.

A short distance later I was where that long line ended, extending the entire length of the Stockyards main drag. I'd managed to, accidentally, cut to the front of the line. And upon my arrival that line had been told to get off the street to let the Herd through. I did not realize what had happened and so I got in the line on the right, not realizing I was about 10 people from going through the airport like security thing, which of course I set off and had to get hand wanded. Right before I got wanded I got asked for some type of paper. I said I didn't have it. The guy said that's okay. I was sure the paper question meant the gig was up.

So, I got through the security check barely keeping my baggy pants from falling due to the removing of my belt.

There was plenty of room in the grandstands, so I got a good seat with a good view of the stage. And a good view of that long long line of people slowing going through security.

I got my video camera out and learned the battery was dead. Then I got my digital camera out and found I'd forgotten to put in the memory card. I was not happy. And then I remembered my cell phone can take pics and then I saw the battery on the phone was about dead. A few minutes went by and I remembered I had a second memory card, the original that came with the camera. It can only hold 18 pics, but that's better than none.

The pre-rally atmosphere reminded me of a high school pep rally. A lot of yelling and sign waving. Speaking of signs, while waiting to get through security, ahead of me was this cute little old lady. She had a hand made sign. This Hillary campaign person told the cute little old lady that they did not allow hand made signs! Can you imagine telling that to a cute little old lady who had gone to the bother of making the sign and coming to the rally? I was appalled. And even more so when I saw a lot of handmade signs once I got to my seat and looked around.

A mariachi band in native garb sang to us while we waited, songs like The Eyes of Texas are Upon You. A funny lady got up on the stage and did some sort of rapping chant. I saw her later when I was at Esperanzas for a chili relleno and told her she was very amusing.

As I waited for Hillary I kept being appalled at how ineptly slow the security check was, as in only a few people were getting in per minute. I'm sure a lot of people just gave up. What happened later regarding security rose to an entire new level of being appalling. You'll have to keep reading to find out what was appalling.

After what seemed an hour or so of waiting, suddenly attention diverted behind me. I turned to see that Hillary's motorcade had arrived. It was very interesting how the dynamic of the crowd changed when they could tell we were being able to see something. Shouts of is she here? And some of us would turn around and nod yes. Hillary slowly made her way along a construction fence.

A short intro by Henry Cisneros and then Hillary climbed on the stage and basked in the adoring screams of her fans. It was loud. I was amazed at how good-looking Hillary is in person. Those debate TV lights do not do her justice. And her speech was really good. No notes. And funny at times. She came across, to me, way different than she had before, as in she didn't seem at all cold or wooden. Or shrill. She looked so young. I can't believe she is 60. And it isn't like I didn't get a good look. And she was in pointy high heels. I thought that was brave, I mean those are not even walking surfaces in the Stockyards, and they had her walking through a construction zone.

And now back to the security. So, they put all these people through that long line hell, many of them giving up, slowly letting people into the sealed off zone, one by one. This went on for hours before Hillary arrived.

Just a week or so prior there was a controversy in Dallas when they stopped the security checks for an Obama rally because they needed to get the people in the building.

So, Hillary was part way into her speech. And then suddenly the security checks stopped and they let the people flood in. Now, if the logic was that no evil doer could get close to the stage at that point, well, they were wrong. I saw many people get quite close during the surge.

So, what was the point of doing the security checks, if, at some point after the person being protected is actually there, you lift the security? Now, if you wanted to do a bad deed would you not, I dunno, wait til they stop doing security checks and then proceed in with your homemade nuclear device?

It was like going from one extreme to another, going from airport like security checking to no security checking.

There were policemen on roofs, helicopters in the air, dozens upon dozens of Fort Worth Police. And the Secret Service was quite noticeable. It would seem that a secure situation could be attained without using the extreme measure of electronic screening. That is too slow in this type situation. It doesn't even work all that well in airports where you have a lot of security check throughs. Here at the Stockyards they had 3 electronic walk through screeners. For an estimated 10,000 people. Any of you who have suffered an airport intuitively know how brain dead doing this was. And wanding a jewelry laden old lady. Can't some common sense be used? How many old lady assassins have there been? Their numbers are few. I really can't think of a single one.

Hillary did have a fainter today! I thought only Obama had the fainters. All in all, a fun day.

Hillary on a Longhorn?

I'm outta here and heading to the Fort Worth Stockyards this morning. Miss Hillary is in Cowtown and down at the Stockyards sometime around noon. I'm hoping to get video of the Fort Worth Herd and Hillary. The herd will be on the move despite Hillary's event. I hope Hillary gets on one of the Longhorns for a photo op. For a slight fee a faux cowboy will let you sit on his cow. The cowboys used to not make it clear money was expected after the cow was mounted and photos taken. This practice caused an incident with a New Jersey tourist who refused to hand over any money. The cowboy then chased the tourist and penned him against a wall with his Longhorn. When it was realized this was not exactly good publicity for the Stockyards new rules were put in place regarding the fees charged for sitting on a Longhorn. I hope if Hillary gets on a Longhorn that she pays up, even though her campaign has run out of money. It would not be a good thing, publicity-wise, for Hillary to get chased by a mad cowboy and penned up against a wall by his Longhorn.

United States & Texas #1

A report from the Pew Center on the States released yesterday documents that the United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. Including China with its 1.3 billion people. For the first time in its history the United States has more than one in every 100 adults in jail or prison. At the start of the new year, 2,319,258 adults were behind bars. That's one in every 99.1 adults in the United States. In stir. The United States leads the world in both the number of citizens jailed and the percentage of its citizens jailed.

Almost $50 billion is spent yearly to incarcerate the 2 million plus inmates.

Texas leads the United States in its number jailed, with 171,790 behind bars. Texas also leads the nation in number of executions.

So, doesn't it seem that maybe there might be something wrong here? Besides there apparently being way too many criminals. Could part of the problem be maybe some things should not be punished by jail time?

For instance, a couple weeks ago I blogged about The Soviet State of Texas. I wrote about what happened to a friend of mine down in Corpus Christi over a bounced $20 check from years prior. For a few days she was one of the 1 in 99.1 adults in jail. Read what she had to say about her experience in what I call the Texas Gulag, but which she refers to as a Concentration Camp.

"I saw more pain in that Concentration Camp of torture than I ever need to see again. The Judge in Dallas who wanted to extradite me back to Dallas to account for this $20 check to Kroger I don't even remember. It was my worst nightmare. They held me with no charges from 8:30am my last day until 11:30pm that night. I thought I was gonna die there. They took me off all my meds and provided no treatment for my diabetes. I went thru withdrawal from all my meds. You can't imagine."

The U.S. frequently complains about China's supposed human rights abuses. I wonder if someone can get thrown in jail in China over a bounced check?

Such things don't just happen in Texas. I have another friend who had a similar experience, but this was up in Washington. This also was over money, and in my opinion, a malicious prosecution by an unscrupulous, amoral prosecutor. The victim was also a female, she also was denied her meds. (why do I know so many female jailbirds?) On arrival at the jail she was strip searched and spent her first night chained to a toilet that was used by dozens of others. The judge was sympathetic to her plight and released her after 3 days.

Til I heard her story I did not realize such things happened in America. Good Christian human rights loving nation that we are, land of the free, home of the brave. The majority of Americans consider themselves God-fearing Christians. Isn't one of Jesus's things something like "that which you do to the weakest among you, you do to Me."?

There are too many people thrown into jail for nonsensical things. It needs to stop. Meanwhile, O.J. remains free. As are many other actual serious crime perpetrators. While who knows how many modern day Jean Valjeans are having their lives ruined because they were so hungry they took a loaf of bread without asking? Or bounced a check? Or didn't realize calling a prosecutor an idiotic baboon would result in a vendetta that would end in jail time?

To Blog

Or not to Blog. The novelty begins to wear thin. I thought this blog thing might be a fun venue to spew my particular brand of unique perspective. But when you have only one person reading your particular brand of unique perspective it starts to seem just a tad self indulgent. That and sort of a sad waste of time. Sure, it is fun to make fun of that sad excuse for a local paper that I continue to buy, that being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And even that is a sad indicator of the sad state of my mind, as in today there was yet one more ripe to make fun of thing in that paper and I just could not muster the energy to say a word about it. And now, these few hours later, I've already forgotten what it was that somehow provoked my umbrage instinct.

It doesn't help the sad state of my deteriorated imagination that we are again suffering from balmy, open the windows, temperatures here in Texas. It makes me want to take a nap. If only I could. I've not been able to take a nap in decades. I'm so jealous of those who can. Or those who can sleep on an airplane. How can they manage that? I have trouble sleeping even at the normal go to bed time of the night, sleeping on an airplane is not even remotely possible. I know this one overweight lazy Goober who takes a minimum of 2 naps a day. He has a morning nap and an afternoon nap. And if the day has been especially tiring he adds a 3 nap in the early evening. This sad fool gets up around 5am so that he can manage to get something constructive done and have plenty of time to nap.

It is coming up on 7pm here in the Central Time Zone of the United States. That means I am about 2 hours from my minimum bedtime. Not that I sleep then. I just go to bed and read. I'm still trying to get through Gail Sheehy's book about Hillary called Hillary's Choice. It's exhausting. I don't know how that woman continues to put up with Bill.

Blab of the Day: Dead or Alive?

I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but I subscribe to this Fort Worth newspaper called the Star-Telegram that regularly annoys me. I know a lot of people have issues with various publications, but til I started reading the Star-Telegram I never had that type of issue. In some way on almost every day there is something I'll read in the Star-Telegram that is in some way on some level just wrong.

Like today's example. There is a section of the paper called "Live!". It a fluff page mostly about celebrity news and reviews of plays or concerts. On this page there is a daily feature called "BLAB! OF THE DAY".

Today's Blab was about Valerie Bertinelli. She came to celebrity hood on a TV sit-com a few decades back called One Day at a Time. One of her co-stars was Mackenzie Phillips. Years ago Mackenzie got into some addiction problems that became fodder for the tabloids.

Valerie Bertenelli is the new spokeswoman for Jenny Craig. She was on Oprah and for some reason mentioned a short romance with Steven Spielberg after she auditioned for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

So, this is what this inane Blab thing had to say regarding the above---"Bertinelli was wrong for the film, but Blab! hears her One Day at a Time co-star Mackenzie Phillips did help score drugs for the crew."

Does that strike anyone with any sort of sense of humor as being amusing, witty or even remotely imaginative? Oh yes, that is hilarious, how clever, Mackenzie Phillips had some drug problems, it's so funny to suggest she helped get drugs for the movie crew while her former co-star was trying to be in the film.

Doesn't stuff like this have to get past an editor? Maybe an adult? Before it shows up in print?

Awhile back this Live! page added a little new feature that was in such obvious bad taste that when I first saw it I figured it was someone's idea of a one day only bad practical joke. But the feature remained for quite some time, til finally complaints in Letters to the Editor and likely phone calls and maybe just common sense caused the Star-Telegram to delete the feature.

And what was that feature? It was called, if memory serves, "Dead or Alive". The blurb would name a person, with a short bio. Like "Sonny Bono, Congressman, husband of Cher, mayor of Palm Springs: Dead or Alive?" I think the way it worked, if I remember right, is the next day the paper would let its waiting with bated breath readers know if the person was Dead or Alive.

Right now I can't think of anything tackier that I've ever seen in any legit newspaper. I wonder if anyone got fired for the Dead or Alive lapse in judgement?

I wonder if anyone will get fired over the Blab! of the Day lapses in judgement? I suspect not.